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Metric Time

metric-time.com

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Re: Metric Time

#221

Post by mistercheph »

shiroiuma wrote: post #87
mistercheph wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that make sense in a context where the useful number of 6 counts the days reserved for the affairs of mankind, and the seventh was an extra day reserved for rest or worship? I.e. the background of our 7 day week

I'm sure that's religious revisionism (just like the Christmas holiday). Like so many time-based things, the 7-day week comes from the cycles of the Moon, and goes back at least as far as the Babylonians.

Right, religious zealots have been ever revising the story of human history, which has been mostly secular peoples that practiced empiricism and appreciated astronomical phenomena as interesting but did not take them as divine.

Re: Metric Time

#222

Post by mistercheph »

simonh wrote: post #64
mistercheph wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no conflicting definition. Minutes, seconds, thirds, and fourths etc. are sexagesimal subdivisions, as tenths, hundreds, thousandths, ten thiusandths etc. are for decimal.

I know what you mean, and you are correct in that this is why we have minutes and seconds of arc, but the linked page is literally suggesting a different definition.

I was referring to GP's suggestion that a conflict already exists.

Re: Metric Time

#224

Post by guntherhermann »

w-ll wrote: post #34
tcmb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. And having 7 days per week is majorly impractical, also for reasons of divisibility. With 7 being prime, it's impossible to do things every other day or every three days without being left with a remainder.

Unless you are a bodybuilder. https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107926751

I don't think I've genuinely laughed at an internet conversation like this in such a long time. Thanks for that. I should join a forum again.

Re: Metric Time

#225

Post by saalweachter »

red_trumpet wrote: post #184
ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While in theory you could measure sleeping time in fractions of 2 pi, I'd guess that you're using rational numbers in the actual calculation anyways.

Why would sleeping time be a fraction of 2pi? > I'd guess that you're using rational numbers in the actual calculation anyways. Well, actually one uses floating point arithmetic, which isn't rational numbers either (as shown by the classic example a = 1/3, b = 3*a, then b != a)

I mean, we could be measuring time in radians. We already subdivide degrees into minutes and seconds, might as well call the day 2 pi radians.

We sleep for 2/3 pi radians of the day in that case.

Re: Metric Time

#226

Post by saalweachter »

funcDropShadow wrote: post #106
jader201 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is the author thought this was an original idea, and just named it “metric” since that usually means some form of base-10 measurement.

No "metric" units means they are derived from the meter. Originally, most units in the SI systems were derived from the meter.

A second is the period of a pendulum with a length of one meter. :-)

(But not really; that was originally considered as a way to standardize the meter, IIRC, but the period of a pendulum varies too much even over the area of France to be used as a concrete standard. But the relationship is remarkably close for a coincidence, like the way a rod is almost exactly five meters.)

Re: Metric Time

#227

Post by fjfaase »

blululu wrote: post #161
jhbadger wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way, China kind of has something like the Swatch gimmick for real. There's just one time zone in the whole country (which is roughly the size of the Continental US). This has benefits (easy to coordinate video conferences in different cities) and drawbacks (the official time is far off from what the sun would indicate in much of China).

It only works because the overwhelming majority of the population and all of the political and economic power lies on the east coast of China in a single time zone. I doubt that the people in Urumqi are happy to have the sun rise at 10 am, and I doubt that anyone cares about their opinions.

I stayed in Urumqi four times (in 1993, 1996, 2006 and 2010), each time for some weeks. It is really confusing that the (traditional) working hours are from 10AM to 2PM and 4PM to 8PM. I found myself everytime looking at the clock substracting two hours. Similar as to when we changed currencies in the Netherlands when the Euro was introduced. I guess it would have taken about half a year stop doing the reverse time calculations.

Re: Metric Time

#229

Post by rplnt »

prometheus76 wrote: post #177
eps wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come to think of it, being able to cleanly divide a minute or an hour into 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 equal parts is pretty damn handy.

Now apply the same logic to measurement, and you'll see why it's so handy to use a dozenal foot for fabricating things.

Is 1/3 (1/6) such an important concept? 1/2 (1/4) is natural in metric.

I would think a bigger benefit is that you can drop up and down without any math depending on the precision you need. Or use decimals, no math involved either, since it's the same thing.

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